The Recipe for an Afghan Soup Sandwich

Shortly after news reports of the attack that killed eight soldiers in Nuristan broke, I noted: "as more details come out about the attacks on the Kamdesh outposts over the next few days, I suspect that Camp Keating will be mentioned as one of those attacked" (read Sunday's post here).

Today, CNN and ABC reported that the attack over the weekend did, in fact, take place at Forward Operating Base (FOB) or, more accurately, Combat Outpost (COP) Keating.  It also appears, with COP Keating scheduled to be closed within days, that the attack was timed to secure a political victory over the U.S.  ABC News quotes a State Department official: "this [attack] gives the insurgents a propaganda victory because they can...claim to the locals that they forced the Americans out."  What this revelation implies, of course, is that our troops at COP Keating may have been "sitting duck" targets for a patient, calculating enemy the whole time.  So what was COP Keating like?

Combat Outpost Keating

By all accounts, COP Keating's location and terrain made it an easy target.  Rocky ridges and cliffs providing elevated positions with plenty of cover and concealment encircle the base.  Inexplicably, COP Keating is located on the floor of a narrow, claustrophobic valley.  Obvious to the most amateur of military tacticians, defending COP Keating without occupying the high ground surrounding it would be an impossible task even for a brigade sized element.  Reports estimated that only about 50 U.S. soldiers occupied Camp Keating at the time of the attack. Further, Keating was located adjacent to an Afghan Army post. It also appears from the videos below that the Afghans performed the bulk of the basecamp security duties.  There simply aren't enough bodies in a 50-man detachment to secure a basecamp and to maintain combat effectiveness for any other mission. This likely had everything to do with reports indicating that the attackers managed to breach COP Keating's perimeter defenses. 

Eery Interviews with Soldiers at COP Keating

Brit Nick Paton Walsh of Channel 4 News was embedded for a short time with the unit at COP Keating and filed this report in August.  I was particularly struck by the following dialogue:

(2:20  into the video)

CPT Porter:  We’re surrounded in that we’re sitting in a bowl.  So we’re constantly under observation.  There have been over 35 contacts with the enemy since we’ve been here...
Walsh:  Why are you here? 
CPT Porter:  My boss told me to be here. 

(3:00 into the video, a firefight breaks out while out on patrol)

(4:45 into the video, back at COP Keating)
Soldier #1:  ...It’s just general douchebaggery.
Walsh:  Do you ever think to yourself, why am I here? 
Soldier #1:  Not really, that’s not my job to ask that question, right Hardt?  Ask the question of "why I’m here," you don’t ask that question, right?
Soldier #2 [Hardt?]:   [Bleeped out] no. 
Walsh:  What questions do you ask? 
Soldier #2:  You don’t ask any questions, you get in trouble for asking questions. 

Video courtesy of Nick Paton Walsh's blog--Snowblog: Watching the War from Nuristan's Idyllic Valleys


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